When I started my writing career with a single children’s mystery book, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening! Success and a reader fan base soon meant that I was awash in requests to “visit our school!” I always say I’m a writer, not a speaker, but how do you say no to a librarian/media specialist or teacher? You don’t
And so, from a humble first visit at a local school, over the years I embarked on visits far and wide around the nation. This book recounts some of the most interesting, curious, hilarious, dangerous, poignant, and even deadly—school visits I have done. When you enter a school, you become part of their world. I quickly learned that, yes, indeed: You don’t have to come back…You just have to go out!
From the hometown of Blackbeard the Pirate, to a school Eleanor Roosevelt once visited via train, coach, and then wagon, I followed in the footsteps of earlier children’s book authors. I learned to be generous, gregarious, patient, brave, and never have to pee or eat!
So many children, so little time, and so many you love and want to pack up and bring home with you. I learned to respect teachers. If you want to know about the world of school and some of the special things that happen there, come along with me on a few school visits. They sound so simple and innocent, but they changed my life, and will yours, too! I never thought I would... Do a “School Visit”, much less LOTS of school visits in 30 years.
Have to distract 300 kids from noticing that a teacher had a heart attack in the middle of her presentation.
Follow the trail of Eleanor Roosevelt to a school in the boondocks… to change a single child’s life!
Be “the last good memory” some students would have before a tragic disaster.
Enter a dramatic “We are in lockdown” scenario!
Laugh, cry, meet Mama Cass in a bathroom, carry around Blackbeard the Pirate’s head, join the army, pimp her props, and often need “a steak and a drink” to survive what teachers pretty much endure/enjoy every day… the adoration of school children.
Meet a former reader who insisted the she was the reason he became an international teacher.“ I learned from the early life savers on the Outer Banks of North Carolina… I just had to go out… I did not have to come back!”
